Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Franchetti wants the U.S. Navy to go “back to the 80s” – an era with fewer satellites – as a way to make training for combat with degraded communications more realistic.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti, speaking at the Paris Naval Conference 2024, was picking up on an exercise practice the French Navy has used for several years, for example sailing for a day without GPS.
Other senior naval officers at a conference panel discussion said this kind of training is essential to maintain carrier strike groups effectiveness and efficiency.
“Mobility is key” to successful carrier strike group operations, said French Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Nicolas Vaujour. Maneuver gives “a really big advantage now and in the future.” Franchetti added a U.S. carrier strike group can move 5,000 miles in a week.
But advances in technology from satellite disruption, electronic jamming, swarming drones, antiship and hypersonic missiles have changed the equation to one in which disruption is a given in a contested environment. Sir Ben Key, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, said “The [maritime] battlespace has become more complicated.”
Vice Adm. Rajesh Pendharcar, Eastern Naval Commander, Indian Navy, said addressing these new asymmetrical threats “is only to be expected,” especially for gray-zone communications and during the initial stages of conflict. He posed the rhetorical question, “How does the carrier strike group remain effective?” The answer lies in also understanding how escorts – corvettes, frigates and submarines – can operate with the carrier under such changed circumstances.
As an example, Vaujour cited “the contested maritime air space” in the Red Sea, in which Houthis in Yemen are firing missiles and sending drones to attack commercial shipping and warships. The U.S. and U.K response has been ship-based missile and air defense from on-shore attack and surface- and submarine-launched missiles and air strikes on Houthi launch sites and depots.
“You need to be discrete” in operations, meaning being less visible digitally, Pandharcar added.
Looking back, “we used to be really good at confusion” and deceiving an enemy, Franchetti said. Over the years, “we got a little bit lazy” about operational security. With social media constantly in play, she added, “operational security has to come first. We really have to emphasize that across our force.”
Whether carrier strike groups will be needed in the future when anti access/area denial is becoming more sophisticated, Key asked, “why then are the Chinese building an aircraft carrier.? Adm. Enrico Credendino, chief of the Italian Navy, said a carrier strike group “is the expression of the rank of nation” globally. He added Italy plans to send one of its carriers for joint operations with other allies in the Indian Ocean later this year.
All agreed the greatest strength the strike group offers is to political leaders is a range of options to deter conflict and, if necessary, to respond with force in an international crisis.
Franchetti stressed the necessity of “figuring out the right balance” for manned and unmanned systems over the next 10 years. A central question is “what are all the problems we’re trying to solve” and the answers can come from academia, the commercial sector and men and women in uniform.
In addition, artificial intelligence and machine learning can prove extremely useful in “conditions-based maintenance” for the carrier itself, individual aircraft and other ships “telling us when” to do the work. Likewise, additive manufacturing, after securing proprietary rights, would greatly increase sustainability at sea, Franchetti and Credendino agreed.
All three maritime chiefs express concerns about manning their fleets and training personnel.
With France building a carrier, Vaujour said his immediate task is to simplify the way pilots and other service members are qualified.
The training challenge in the future, Franchetti said, is “how do we get the reps and sets” for the whole carrier strike group without always relying on live exercises.
“We need to motivate personnel” to join and stay, Credendino said, admitting Italy has “huge problems” in both areas.
